Devils look to repair image

With full off-season, AHL club out to change vibe

Published 12:15 am, Monday, April 25, 2011

ALBANY -- Chris Ciceri didn't flinch when he heard the question.

"Definitely," he said when asked if he still encountered negative vibes from fans of the former Albany River Rats.

As executive director of the Albany Devils, Ciceri oversees the off-ice operations of the American Hockey League franchise, which was lured to Times Union Center last summer after the River Rats relocated to Charlotte, N.C.

He can't control the on-ice product, which finished at the bottom of the 30-team AHL standings. That's up to another Chris -- Chris Lamoriello, general manager of the team -- but Ciceri can try to change the perception of Devils hockey in the Capital Region.

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"Life's about choices," Ciceri, his usual upbeat self, said last week as he dined in a downtown restaurant. "You get to be upset about it, or look at it as an opportunity. For me, this is a journey here in Albany.

"We have a great opportunity. If I think this is war out there, it's not a great atmosphere. But if it's a sales opportunity, a way to brand your team, I'm all for that. So, Chris (Lamoriello) and I have a philosophy: We will win them over one at a time."

What a lot of the community fails to recognize is that when the Devils were here previously, as a 13-year partner with the River Rats, they didn't operate the franchise. All they did is supply the players.

When the Rats affiliated with the Carolina Hurricanes, the Devils bought an AHL team and moved to Lowell, Mass.. Ciceri and Chris Valente, vice president of sales and marketing, were with the team in Lowell and relocated to Albany.

"We stuck to what we knew," Valente said. "We knew coming in, it would be a test run -- do this, see what works, what doesn't work, tweak it for next year. Having a foundation from four years in Lowell, we were growing every year in attendance. We knew what programs worked there. We tried to translate them here."

Valente said he was happy with the season attendance of 124,563, which included 14,834 from four games in Atlantic City, N.J. Although the per-game average of 3,114 was lowest in the league, it was a 25 percent improvement over the final season in Lowell.

"Our goal was 120,000, and we hit it right on the button," said Valente, who didn't have a full staff in place until a month before the regular season opened. "The attendance was growing. The more time we had here, the more contacts we made, the more events we were able to set up. By the end of the year, there were 4,000 a night in the building."

The Devils hope to build on that momentum for next season.

They say they have learned a lot about the market. They surveyed ticket-holders to learn what is working and what isn't. They incorporated some ideas used by the River Rats, including having a weekday-morning game next season for school kids.

For their second season in Albany, the Devils are going to a color-coded seating plan, whereby tickets in prime locations will cost more than others.

"Everybody has the rink somewhat color-coded," Ciceri said. "The end zones are the least-expensive tickets, on the glass are a little more expensive, and so forth." Those who bought season tickets this season will be charged the same per-game rate for the new year. In fact, the Devils are offering those fans a chance to lock in the same price for the next four seasons. They can even have the season-ticket costs deducted from a credit card in monthly installments.

"It's a way to say thank you to people who did come on board in Year One and did trust us and gave us their support," Valente said.

The most important change, according to the Devils executives, is that the staff will have the entire offseason to build community relations.

They realize that some fans miss the River Rats and have preconceived notions on how the Devils operate. They just ask for the chance to deliver their message.

"Yes, it's probably still there," Ciceri said of the negative vibes. "Some people probably don't even know that we're still here.

"Coming from the automotive trade, I call all of this noise. Roll up the windows, don't listen to anything, let's do what we want to do properly and professionally. Get out in the community. We don't do it for the ink in the newspaper. We do it because that's the way we should do it."